Suspicion has been announced against the "director" of the Crimean museum for stealing almost 11,000 exhibits from Kherson, reported Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on Wednesday, UNN writes.
Personally selected and packed: suspicion against the "director" of the Crimean museum for stealing almost 11,000 exhibits from Kherson. The key participant in the large-scale looting of the collections of the O. O. Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum turned out to be the so-called director of the Central Museum of Taurida in Crimea.
Details
According to the Prosecutor General, "in the autumn of 2022, the suspect, acting on the orders of the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation, personally selected, organized the packing and removal of museum objects that are the property of Ukraine."
The suspect, as the Prosecutor General reported, acted jointly with the so-called "Minister of Culture" of Kherson region, his deputy, and the "director" of the Kherson Museum.
"Almost 11,000 exhibits out of the 14,000-item museum collection that existed before the full-scale Russian invasion were actually stolen," Kravchenko stated.
The actions of the suspect, according to the Prosecutor General, are qualified under Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – violation of the laws and customs of war, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. The sanction of the article provides for 8 to 12 years of imprisonment.
The issue of declaring him wanted is being resolved.
The accomplices in the crime were notified of suspicion earlier.
Other persons involved in the commission of the crime are being identified.
Russia systematically steals Ukraine's artistic heritage. These are not isolated incidents or "evacuation" for preservation, but a deliberate policy at the state level. These crimes will not go unpunished. Those who think they can hide abroad are mistaken.
According to him, an example is the Russian archaeologist Oleksandr Butyagin, who publicly "legalized" the looting and destruction of Ukrainian cultural values.
"According to the decision of the Polish court, Butyagin's extradition to Ukraine is currently awaited. This is a clear signal: international law works," Kravchenko stated.
"Ukraine will get its own back, and responsibility for the crimes committed by Russia against our state will catch up with everyone – from an ordinary perpetrator to a 'scientist'-accomplice," the Prosecutor General emphasized.